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By Jack Joseph Smith

Hermann Christ has spoken for you, you and he live He has not thought twiee about it All four ways on the eross Abraham was never more than a diagram away from home \ if I'did not walk the territory WU Wal rH \ | ‘ { to have the revirbation of ie i ‘ a vu ub \ your thunder to be gone We did not slight ehance ‘ \ when after thirty years WWJ we received ourselves as the same t The qugstiow 2 In rhyme,, did you ever notice te, Nq how gadiktRE better is getting worse

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

Christ speaks on all four ways of the cross while Abraham, thunder, territory, and thirty years return Hermann to a sameness where improvement rhymes with worsening.

The cross opens outward in four directions, so salvation feels less like a single line than a crossroads. Abraham being only a diagram away from home shrinks sacred history into something sketched, portable, and abstract, while thunder and territory pull the voice back toward lived distance. Thirty years leading to the same self gives the closing question its bite: rhyme can make progress sound elegant even when it is decay.

Claude

'Hermann' two: Christ has spoken for you; Abraham never more than a diagram from home. Thirty years later they received themselves as the same. 'The question / In rhyme, did you ever notice / how [goddamn] better is getting worse.'